More Junkmail Opt-Out Strategies

(courtesy of Riverside County Waste Management Department)

Credit Cards

For American Express card holders, ask AMEX to remove your name from its direct marketing lists. You can be removed from their in-house lists, outside company lists, or both. Contact:

Customer Service - American Express
200 Vesey St. Tower C
New York, NY 10285
1-800-327-2177

For all others, call or write to the customer service office for each credit card you own asking them not to sell, trade or lend your name and address to any organization for its mailing lists. You must do this for each card so that if you have three Visa cards with different banks/institutions, you would have to write each one individually.

Phone Books

Many organizations use phone books as their national database. You may consider having an unlisted number, or list just your name and phone number, not your address.

Warranty Cards

It isn't necessary to complete warranty cards to be covered by a warranty. Most warranty cards request demographic information which is used to add your name to various organizations' mailing lists. The only reason to return a warranty card is to find out about product recalls. If you want to return the card for that reason, only provide your name, address and product serial number.
Write to National Demographics and Lifestyles to be removed from the lists created from warranty cards especially if you know you have filled one out in the past.

National Demographics and Lifestyles
List Order Department
1621 18th St. Suite 300
Denver, CO 80202

U. S. Postal Service

When you fill out a change of address, the forwarding information is rented to 24 private businesses licensed by the U. S. Postal Service. This is how list brokers, credit bureaus and others get your name in the first place. You might consider not filing a change of address form when you move. Instead, send out your own postcards to those whose mail you want to receive, and ask the post office to hold your mail for pickup until everyone knows your new address.